When I began this project, opinions on the contribution of Internet
and communications technologies (ICTs) to sustainable consumption
were quite divergent. Ironically, this was due to the very limited
information available on the contribution of ICTs to sustainable consumption.
Most views, as one might expect, were clustered around
anticipations that ICTs would enable the dematerialization of physical
products—that is to say, that virtual products and services would
generate a smaller materials and energy footprint than their physical
counterparts—and the immaterialization—a shift toward virtual options—of
consumer preferences. Amazingly, this view still largely
prevails today, despite the growing evidence against it